U of A building next strategic institutional plan

Four of the most prominent governing bodies at the University of Alberta met collectively for the first time ever earlier this week in an effort to build the next institutional strategic plan.

The U of A’s General Faculties Council, Board of Governors, Senate and Alumni Council Executive convened at Lister Conference Centre to engage in a conversation on how to “build a great university.” The meeting was spearheaded by recently installed U of A President David Turpin, who said the group was put together to pose questions about where the university should go in the future.

The strategic plan seeks to “establish concrete, achievable and measureable goals and strategies that will support (the U of A’s) vision.”
“The two objectives for this meeting were one, get these governing bodies together so that they could get to know each other, and second, to get their input on some of those questions we think are important in answering in terms of shaping the future direction of the institution,” Turpin said.

The groups were dispersed and separated into 12 tables, with each table having a topic of discussion. Topics included leadership and service, excellence, creativity, entrepreneurship and economic diversification, reputation and advocacy, students, faculty, academic and non-academic staff, campus cohesion, diversity, national and international leadership and community engagement. All those present at the meeting had an opportunity to sit at two tables throughout the evening.

“One of the big things that came up was really defining who we are as a leading national and international university,” Turpin said, as he flipped through a notepad with several points scribbled on it during the discussions. “This is the beginning of the discussion that takes place over the coming months.”

Turpin’s plan now is to take the information from the meeting and take it into several other planned forums and town halls with the U of A community. A committee will then take the consultative information from each of these meetings and pen a draft of the strategic institutional plan, which will be made public for the purpose of further consultation.

Since the university uses various levels of governance in decision-making, bringing the pool of diverse perspectives between the four groups was a “great opportunity,” U of A Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Steven Dew said.

“Each of these groups has a different responsibility on delivering what the University of Alberta is really about,” Dew said. “It’s essential to have all these voices hearing each other, being heard and interacting with each other.”

Dew said the consultative path to the next strategic institutional plan will take about two months. By gathering the input from different groups and perspectives, they’ll begin to “pull the threads together.”

Undergraduate Board of Governors Representative Azhar Khan, who also sits on GFC, said the discussion didn’t seem like a venue where they were trying to come up with solutions, but a chance to address any concerns and request clarifications from administration regarding the direction of the U of A.

“It was more of an opportunity to voice any concerns and complaints to the administration,” Khan said. “But ultimately, it’s up to the administration on what they want to do with these concerns.”

After the university constructs their new strategic plan, Dew said they’ll start the process all over again and seek feedback from the community and various stakeholders.

“It’s the start of a completely new set of conversations,” Dew said. “Hopefully, this started some networks and interactions that wouldn’t have otherwise existed.”

A previous version of this article read “four of the most prominent governance.” This has since been changed to “four of the most prominent governing bodies.”